£500k fine following the death of an employee
A group of employees at a hot metal forging company were working on a task hammering pieces of hard alloy. One of the workers was working on a small but hard piece of metal. Because of the size of the metal, he had to kneel close to the hammer. A piece of alloy got misaligned and ejected towards him with force. It hit the employee in the chest causing fatal injuries.
An investigation found the company had breached the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 because they failed to assess the dangers involved in the task and failed to provide the team with the proper equipment. The company and was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay £23,756.47 in costs.
Health and safety inspector Carol Downes commented: ‘This tragic incident could easily have been prevented if the employer had acted to identify and manage the risks involved, put a safe system of work in place, and to ensure that the job was allocated to the appropriate equipment. Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.’
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Worker dies after falling into a tank of oil
A worker at a biofuel company died early Wednesday. The incident happened when two workers were emptying oil and grease from a semi-truck into a tank. One of the workers slipped on a grate and fell into the tank. His colleague did all he could to pull him out. Unfortunately they were both swamped by the fumes and the worker sunk to the bottom of the tank. The fire department later pulled the man’s body from the tank.
The company’s spokesperson said: ‘This was a tragic accident. We’re all deeply saddened by the loss of this coworker. We are in shock and grief, and figuring out what happened.’
The incident has been identified as a tragic accident.
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Employees’ foot crushed by a 800 kg lift
An employee of a leading logistics integration company was working at an online shopping distribution centre. He was replacing sensors on an automated storage retrieval systems lift. He was standing on the frame of the truck when suddenly the 800 kg lift fell on his foot trapping him between the lift and the frame. His fellow employees had turned on the emergency stop, but they did not cut the power to the control panel. This resulted in two of his toes being amputated to the knuckle. The logistics company pleaded guilty to two charges for not assessing the risks involved with the equipment. They were in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The business was fined £12,000 for each offence and payed £8,705 in costs.
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